Various camera-based, decision-making, mapping techniques to represent a plant or a part of a plant for treatment, such treatment being stimulating/hindering the growth, are known: Some systems use plant recognition by means of analysis of radiated/reflected spectra being specific to the plants of interest; other systems use pattern recognition technique based on analysis of form and structure of leaves from the relevant plants; even systems discriminating crop/weed depending of determination of plant height are known. Such systems are often “biased” with additional information of characteristics of the plants/crop/weeds expected to be involved, and/or of the characteristics of the place of growth, e.g. data from previous mapping of same field—possibly with same rows of plants, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,035 discloses examples of such techniques.
The invention is not specifically related to a specific one of such techniques, as the most suited for the actual need may be selected—alone or in combination(s).
The point in the use of an appropriate mapping technique in relation to the inventive apparatus comprising individually controllable treatment means, comprises:                moving the “camera” means along the one or more rows, in which the plants of interest for treatment are positioned, and so, that the area(s) actually being observed/recorded by the camera means is/are located a physical distance in front to the target area of the treatment means, to yield time during movement forwards, to establish a prepared map of digitized unitary spots covering the area for treatment, so this prepared map in the form of an organized data structure is available to the treatment means, when their target area is positioned over the physical area represented by the prepared map;        via the camera observations, biasing data, and decisive software, also preparing the map with inclusion of spot-specific information of nature of treatment decided;        via speed-of-movement data, and via the actual physical distance from a physical unitary spot in the area of interest for treatment at an observation point of time, to the target area of the treatment means—at the same point of time, (to a little later treat said physical unitary spot,) synchronizing the treatment means to treat said physical unitary spot with the decided treatment, when at treatment-time being positioned/“framed” in the target area.        
From above is to be understood, that a prepared map is a dynamic phenomenon, as such a treatment system normally in a suitable elevation is being continuously moved along the rows, at a suitable speed; thus, the camera means all the time during the movement, at the front “take in” successive lines across the direction of movement, of new spots to be mapped and decided for, while the treatment means a distance rearward “leave behind” “used” spots after their passage of the target area, which is moved together with the system. The map can to some degree be imagined as a semi-stationary overlay on an area for treatment, being rolled out by the system on that area at observation time, being transformed to a prepared state and used for the decided treatment during the system's passage of that area, and the overlay/map then being rolled in again by the system after the prepared map overlay has been used and passed by the treatment means.